Today I’m answering another writing prompt: “Why do you blog?” This is a great question, because I shouldn’t be spending so much time on this blog without good reasons! But first, a broader question is: “Why write at all?” After that, choosing to blog is a second issue.
Why I write First, we are made to be creative. We are not random accidents with no creator and no purpose. Before man existed, the Bible describes God Himself as creative, taking a universe that was “without form and void”[1] and making it into something orderly. Then He put mankind in a garden, which was meant as a model for what we should turn the rest of the world into. Writing is a way to take formless ideas and turn them into something orderly. Creativity goes beyond what we typically consider art. It is using our God-given abilities to make this world more like Paradise.
Second, we are told to “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.”[2] Writing is a way to force myself to think through ideas I have or that I’ve come across. Everyone has in their conscience a variety of voices, or influences, that they follow. If we don’t take intentional time to consider why we believe what we believe and do what we do, we aren’t testing the spirits. We’re just doing whatever seems to come naturally, which isn’t the best approach.
Lastly, I write because I enjoy it and want to get better at it. Saint Augustine wrote: “I endeavor to be one of those who write because they have made some progress, and who, by means of writing, make further progress.”
Why I blog Many people write things and keep them private, and I also keep some of what I write private, but the only way writing can be useful to others is to write publicly, and blogs are about as public as it gets – I don’t filter who reads these. It also forces me to put things in a more “final” form than I otherwise might.
Christianity includes “speaking the truth in love.”[3] If I’ve found something truthful and beneficial to me, it could be beneficial to someone else, and I should share it. My writing motto is to be compelling and clear, but most of all charitable, meaning written for the benefit of the audience. Hopefully what I write here is worthwhile to others!
When writing, I keep in mind:
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” – Colossians 3:23-24
In the Marvel movie Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange uses a powerful Time Stone to watch millions of possible future outcomes and find one where the Avengers win. The solution involves huge, almost unconscionable losses, including giving the villain, Thanos, exactly what he needs to commit genocide. The movie was part one of two, and the second wasn’t released until a full year later. Infinity War ends with Thanos victorious, and audiences had to wait to see if Strange’s decisions and sacrifices would work. Would the trust the Avengers put in him be rewarded and lead to their deliverance? It didn’t look good at the time, and it was actually a pretty grim movie.
Marvel’s story had cast Strange in the role of a prophet, except that Strange himself saw the future, and decided himself what to report back to the others, who had to trust what he said he saw, his judgement in what to share, and be willing to stick with it no matter what. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah’s call from God to be a prophet in Jeremiah 1:8-10 has some interesting comparisons with Marvel’s story line. The verses are:
“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD. Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Unlike Doctor Strange, Jeremiah did not have the big picture; he could not pick and choose what to say. God would “put…words in your mouth,” words specifically chosen from perfect and infinite knowledge to be exactly what was needed. Strange was able to act on his plan, although the others didn’t understand and resisted. In Jeremiah’s case, Israel did not listen to him, and God actually told Jeremiah they wouldn’t, but he prophesied anyway. He was created for that purpose, and in the verses above he was assured to “not be afraid of them.”
While Strange promised that his plan would work, we had to wait for the sequel to see it. God promised Jeremiah, who also told the people, that his plan would work, and that the words God gave Jeremiah would determine the fates of “nations” and “kingdoms”, who God would “pluck up” and “break down.” But Jeremiah died waiting for the sequel. During his lifetime, Israel was plucked up by the Babylonians and sent into exile as punishment for their rejection of God, which was also a rejection of Jeremiah. His life was like a pretty grim movie, but his story was not finished, as we now know.
In his lifetime Jeremiah may have looked like a failure, but in the years after and in eternity, his work as a prophet and also his personal experience of God has provided invaluable lessons for millions. God knew this from the beginning because He didn’t have to wait a year to see the sequel. He has already seen them all. Therefore, we can trust what He sees, His judgement in what to share, and be willing to stick with it no matter what, because His story and ours does not end in this lifetime.
“It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God.” – C. S. Lewis
(Prior posts on Jeremiah’s call are here and here)
People have moments where they wish they had a greater role in the world around them. We see other people around us, or in stories from the Bible or in the news, and think we’d like to be more like them. More influential, more effective, more powerful. For example, what if I could be a prophet or an apostle? Or in our modern world, maybe a “social media influencer”? “Be yourself” is often the advice for finding contentment when we feel like this, but the Bible says we are “to be conformed to the image of his Son.”[1] So, should we be ourselves, or should we be like Jesus? What will give us contentment? While not a full answer, the call of Jeremiah the prophet offers some help.
Jeremiah was not a prophet by accident, because Jeremiah 1:4-5 says:
“Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’”
Here, God calls Jeremiah both to conform his ways to God’s, and also to his own specific task. Like Jeremiah, every Christian is known by God and called to do His will. Only God knows why we were each made the way we were made, and in a way God calling us to serve Him is like Him saying “stop living like you’re an accident of a random, purposeless world.” It is because we were made, not just evolved, that we have purpose, and God has “consecrated” us to that purpose.
Stop living like you’re an accident of a random, purposeless world.
But each of us was made differently, also on purpose. Unlike Jeremiah, my fellow travelers on this blog probably aren’t prophets, and that is part of why Jeremiah needed to be a prophet. His job wasn’t to call everyone else to be a prophet, but to serve everyone else by calling them to find their own purpose in God. Jeremiah wanted all of God’s people to take whatever He has endowed them with and dedicate it to Him. Likewise, being “conformed to the image of” Jesus does not mean we should all be carpenters, but that we should apply His righteousness to every task He puts before us.
Therefore, God’s people should never live like they are an accident. We are all a valuable work of creation, made to find our good and His glory in His amazing design. We will find our true selves in the One who made us, and God’s people will have unity in Christ’s character, combined with diversity in the infinite creativity of the people He created.
Be yourself, and also be like Jesus.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10
Have you ever heard a voice from heaven? If you did, how would you know to believe it?
In John 12:28 Jesus said in front of a crowd of people: “Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.”
When this voice spoke, the hearers still had to decide whether or not to believe it. Not everyone on the scene had faith that this voice was actually God. Not everyone who heard it and thought it was God decided that this God deserved their obedience, even though these people were eyewitnesses to a supernatural event that many today would be thrilled to see, to “prove” God’s existence.
Suppose someone on the scene looked up at the sky and said: “Who do you think you are? I don’t know who this ‘Jesus’ guy is, and I sure don’t know who you are – why should I follow you?” Perhaps the voice from heaven responds with a bolt of lightning, and this poor man is now a dead smoldering heap.
Now, the man next to this one could be thinking: “I really should follow this Jesus person, because if I don’t, the next bolt could be for me.” This is rational, solid reasoning. But reason is not the same as faith. This man’s other response could be: “Jesus really is the Son of God and deserves my loyalty. I’m grateful that He is willing to accept me as I am.” Did the lightning really provide convincing evidence of this? Are there still other alternatives? Could the voice be interpreted as some other deity trying to gain followers? Perhaps, so therefore this second response is more like faith than reason.
So, even faced with overwhelming evidence, “reason” does not power a decision to truly make a decision, “faith” does. Reason can lead a horse to water, but it can’t make him drink. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8)
In addition, claims contrary to Christianity require a supernatural faith (albeit one without a source), and here are two examples
1) “There is no God” – Some say that if he exists, he should show himself. Of course, as we have seen, even those who claimed to know Jesus Himself and witness his miracles say this would not convince a skeptic who decided not to believe. Also, how does one prove God does not exist? Europeans used to believe there was no such thing as a black swan because they had never seen one – until they traveled more of the world. They could never prove that black swans did not exist, but they could (and did) believe it. To prove it, they would have to be personally present in all parts of the universe at all times simultaneously – in essence, they would need to be God to prove that all swans were white. “There is no God” cannot be proven by reason, but a skeptic can claim that they have not witnessed God in their experience, and that they have faith that God does not exist outside their experience.
2) “Man is the result of purely natural processes” – If “natural” is that which science has explained, and “supernatural” is everything else, it turns out that this is a claim about the supernatural, not a claim that there is no supernatural. If you change “observed” to “observable” in Merriam-Webster’s definition of “supernatural” (“of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe”), you see this distinction. Merriam-Webster takes for granted that all things “supernatural” will become “natural” through scientific advancement in the way the current majority thinks they will. The consensus in Galileo’s day was that everything revolved around the earth – but the consensus was proved wrong. Proving that man is purely natural requires that the current thinking on evolution is correct, and faith that nothing outside of current knowledge could ever possibly over-turn it.
However, in the words of G.K. Chesterton, “Science knows nothing whatever about pre-historic man; for the excellent reason that he is pre-historic.” The “evidence” for one species changing into another is based on deductions from historical fossils, not on eyewitness accounts. While man has observed species mutate and acquire new traits, we have not yet seen a monkey (or anything else) mutating into a man. Regardless, theories of human evolution make a lot of claims about the history of mutations across species. It takes the observed changes within a species, and assumes that over millennia these mutations lead to one species changing into another, then another… It also claims that future evidence will inevitably support current evidence, in spite of the fact that evidence for evolution has been overturned repeatedly in history. Even in my own experience, what I was taught in middle school was different than what I was taught in college about evolution. If the historical track record is not that good, why have faith that the future track record will be perfect? Evolutionists refer to the process of discovery by trial and error consistently as “progress”, but is it always? Unless you already know beyond any shadow of doubt what you are progressing toward, how do you know you are progressing?
I’m not claiming to have dis-proved evolution here, but only to show that to prove it beyond a shadow of any possible doubt is beyond the power of reason. It’s another black swan.
Claims that there is no supernatural, are claims about the supernatural. These claims would require supernatural means to prove. They require seeing the future and the past, therefore, to believe a supernatural claim without supernatural evidence requires faith. It is beyond reason and proof. To me, the evidence and the logic do not live up to the claims they want to support.
Claims that there is no supernatural, are claims about the supernatural.
All people have faith – just in different things. Materialists fail to explain how man, as a mere complex set of materials and chemical reactions, consciously and intentionally goes about his life pondering deep thoughts about the origin of himself, while an earthworm does not bother. Christians – even the authors of the Bible – fail to explain how some consciously and intentionally choose faith when presented with miracles, while others do not.
There will always be such a thing as the “supernatural”. All people speculate about what’s out there in that realm of knowledge we can’t reproduce in a lab. Many people have dogmas about what’s in that realm – evolutionists believe that everything they do not understand yet will confirm that there is no God; religious people believe that there is enough evidence in the world we’ve already observed to warrant the possibility of a God.
On the one hand, you have the supernatural claims of natural men, claiming two things: 1) that they (and you) are the accidental result of millennia of chemical mutations, and that these chemicals follow rules that they do not know the origins of (yet); and 2) that the chemicals in their brain “believe” without a doubt that they can predict that what they do not know will confirm what they currently know and believe. This future evidence will prove their current belief, which was itself the result of a chain of accidental chemical reactions (but apparently under the purposeful control of some unknown thing that seeks to convince you of your mere natural chemicalness).
On the other hand, there is a written record of a man who claimed to be from that supernatural realm, who sees the future and the past, who knew there were black swans. How many there were. Where they were. And that the Europeans would eventually find them. This man asked for your belief – which set of claims is more reasonable?
“Come near to God and he will come near to you” – James 4:8
Reading the Psalms is a great devotional habit. Most years, I read one a day starting January 1 until they’re done and then start again the next year. However, too often I read through one without it having any effect on me. Too often I miss that the writers aren’t just trying to teach about God, but they are trying to share their experience of Him with me. They don’t just want me to know what they know about Him – They want me to feel what they felt about Him, and act as they acted toward Him. For example, Psalm 96:1-5 reads like instructions:
“Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.”
Verse 1 isn’t “listen to me sing a new song” but instead it asks everyone (and everything) to sing a new song to God. The Psalmist wants us to participate with them in their joy, and even spells out how and why to do this:
“from day to day” – make it a daily habit
“among the nations” – don’t pick and choose your audience. Share publicly and indiscriminately
“For great is the LORD” – because He deserves it
“For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols” – because no other is worthy
Not only the Psalms, but all worship, requires participation.
“A new song” suggests something that’s creative, offered in praise…Perhaps you are not a ‘creative’ person. You might be a tax collector or a soldier[1]. You might be a clerk, accountant, lawyer, politician, engineer, housewife or anything else. It doesn’t matter. It’s about knowing who you are and dedicating that to the Lord and to others.”
Your situation is not mine. Few people have blogs, and God doesn’t always deliver answers to prayer in the same way, but in whatever way we can, He wants us to participate in the praise of the Psalms, sharing Him every day, to all people, because He deserves it.
This day and every day, what can you do to “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name”? Take a moment and ask Him how you might participate in the Psalms.
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 